Hi, I’m a second semester junior and I plan on applying to several Ivies come next year. I haven’t quite decided which one to do early…
My GPA right now is 3.92 UW. If I apply regular decision, it should be about 3.95-3.97 UW (assuming I do well). I’m well aware that GPA isn’t the end-all be-all, but I want to know where my GPA falls…slightly below average, average, or slightly above average?
In terms of my courseload, I’ve taken three APs and 3 Honors. Next year I’m taking 3 APs and 2 honors. Also, for reference, my school does not let freshman take any weighted courses and doesn’t let anyone except seniors take three APs.
No.
Grades are but one part of the application.
This is your third post asking if your grades/standardized tests etc. are high enough for Princeton. First off I do think you need to try to get your ACT up a bit to be a highly competitive candidate and hopefully that will happen. Second, even with a higher ACT, Princeton must be considered to be a reach for any unhooked candidate. The acceptance rate this year was 5.5% which indicates that the school does not have enough room to accept all of the very well qualified candidates. There are applicants with perfect GPA and standardized test scores who do not get in.
I recommend you work to make your Princeton application showcase your strengths, interests etc. (use essays, LORs to your best advantage) and then move on to other schools and work equally hard on those applications. Do not pin all of your hopes and dreams on one hyper-competitive college. When the time comes you should find and apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be excited to attend.
Before you even think about these schools, find out if you have the means to pay for them. Otherwise you’re wasting your time, even if you get accepted.
@mmshan691 GPA or SAT is only relative, if you are an athlete, URM or legacy, requirements are different compared to what you need as an un-hooked Chinese-Californian student. These schools try to craft a diverse class and they pick according to their institutional needs at a given moment, not by what you have to offer.
You are a competitive applicant. Your GPA is great. Write amazing essays and you could get accepted
(Sorry if this comes off as a little blunt) but I personally wouldn’t apply to Princeton early if I were you…I got in early action two years ago (class of 2020), and most of the other students I know who got in early were all super academically accomplished. A lot of them had perfect SAT/ACT scores, UW GPAs, and over a dozen AP classes on their records by the end of their junior year. I understand the restriction on AP classes imposed by your school, but I feel like Princeton (and other schools’ adcoms) would’ve liked to see you circumvent that self-studying AP classes and taking the tests on your own. Many of my classmates did that in high school, especially when their schools offered IB programs but not AP classes, and they still wanted to demonstrate their knowledge of a particular subject.
Princeton is very…academically-oriented in its admissions process - it values extremely strong academic performance and evidence of raw critical thinking/learning ability more than the other Ivies, and places comparatively less emphasis on extracurriculars and achievements outside the classroom. If you have really good extracurriculars, I would maybe think about applying to Harvard, Yale, or Columbia early instead. Again, not trying to be discouraging, but just adding another perspective to the ones offered above.